Ah, but that’s interesting.
If you want to avoid bullying, you may create an obvious bully to the story - like, clearly a bad guy - and they would comment on said cartoon or whatever, and making fun of it. It may even be a fiction in fiction that doesn’t portrait trans people in a negative way, but that character would make fun, without aiming it at the RO we’re talking about.
And well, the RO would have overheard that. That way, they wouldn’t have been bullied, but still could have taken a certain distance from the idea.
If said RO and the MC are childhood friends, they may even have overheard that thing together.
And if there’s a possibility for trans MCs, it would be cute if the MC being trans was born from that very same cartoon or whatever you go with, since they could talk about it with said RO.
I’m not sure how excited any of us would be to see a game where the transgender love interest witnesses transphobia.
That’s why I’m talking about an obviously bad character (and only one), and suggesting for that fiction to not depict trans people in a bad way
Even then, you’re still asking the reader to witness a transphobic action against a trans character, or against trans people in general.
Yeah, it’s tricky - it depends on the reader’s tastes…
Obviously, while this specific theme doesn’t affect me, I have been a victim of racism for many years. But in my case, I actually enjoy seeing depictions of bad behavior in that aspect in fiction, so we can see the main character fight against that and/or overcome it. But I also know other people don’t like to see it at all.
Though, back on topic, even without the bully part, there being a positive fiction with a trans character may be a interesting plot point.
I was thinking it would just be like a little 5 year old bully saying “What are you, traaans?” in a mean voice during their recess. Not anything worse than that, just a little kid being dumb because they think it’s cool to make fun of anyone that’s slightly different. But I likely won’t add it.
Or I can make it happen, but have all the adults get upset at the child for saying that, so it is clear that everyone agrees they were in the wrong.
It happens to be that there is a lot of bullying that happens in my story, I’m just not sure that this topic should be part of that.
Yeah, it’s perfectly normal to want to avoid some kinds of bullying in a story. In the end, when bullying is involved, some people will get unconfortable anyway, even if it’s clearly treated as a bad thing by all the main characters. It’s up to you to find the balance you want and to determine the lines you don’t want to cross. Maybe some polls will help you determine the general reactions once you post a WIP of your story, so you can iron out the details.
Sadly I’m not the best person to give any advice about that since fighting against discrimination of all sorts is a theme I really enjoy in fiction, as mentionned before, and in order for the characters to fight it, it has to be depicted.
Hey so this is almost verbatim what went on with me and why it took me so long to realize I was trans. I was never bullied for it, and it wasn’t necessarily presented in an entirely negative way, it was just presented as so alien that it couldn’t be me. If my perspective would be valuable, hit me up.
As a Straight Hetero Female. If I romance a Male Option then they turn out to be Trans. I would of liked to find this out earlier on before any serious relationship starts budding.
Whether or not this particular theme is used, content warnings exist so readers who do not want to witness topics such as that do not have to. Like @konoi, I cannot speak on transphobia specifically, but I enjoy when heavier real world issues that I do deal with are handled in what I read. Reception will vary.
This might be relevant to my game, since there is a potential RO that does not understand gender, or bodies, since they are very inhuman. So far I have defaulted to they/them pronouns but as their understanding of humanity grows I wonder how people would respond if late in the game they did settle on a gender.
Just my opinion on it, I feel like making it a choice (in some fashion or another) the player has input on would be best. I feel that is a circumstance where it would make sense to be up to the player, since I know the relationship they have. Them being influenced by the MC just seems reasonable to me.
Hmmm I will think about it cause that sounds good to me too.
Ultimately it’s your story, and you should do what you wish with it. My issue isn’t with necessarily including this sort of material in your story. It’s with cis people suggesting that to make your story better, you should consider making obvious transphobic bullies—or forcing the characters to witness something transphobic—a significant plot point. Far too often people talk about wanting to explore “real struggles” and “real problems” people face, but they never want to show the positives or happy parts of our identities. I was personally quite offended by cis people offering perspective on how to invoke sympathy for trans people within a video game.
I personally think you’d be better off avoiding showing explicit transphobia in your story, such as discussing transphobic portrayals in fiction. And I think instead of having a five year old use “trans” like it’s a slur they don’t understand, it would be better to simply have the character be confused. Asking questions, and potentially coming to an understanding would be a better way to promote trans people in your story than including a bully, in my opinion.
Frankly If people wanted ‘real struggles’ and ‘real stories’ they shouldn’t be looking to other cis people for those at all lmao.
Nevermind that If this character is being added for the sake of inclusivity, and not just a selling point, then the opinions of cis people should have been basically irrelevant from the get go.
I think they were talking in regards to this
If the story is good, not just some lousy fanservice I would like to have one. I just love good stories. I am okay with anything else.
A game can aspire to be inclusive and also appeal to the targeted audiences without that indicating the characters are only there to be selling points. I think the question was less about the inclusiveness, and more focused on if their idea can mesh with the mechanics of an RO and player sexual orientation like in these two examples of potential conflict:
I agree with everything you said.
However, if done well, it would be great for representation 
Good luck with this idea though, I hope it works out!